


unravel

by saunatonttu



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: M/M, Pining, alternative universe, lots of anxiety involved on shouichi's part, the morning after, vague 2769 in the background, what to do with a naked italian in your apartment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 02:17:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11221212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saunatonttu/pseuds/saunatonttu
Summary: There is a naked Italian in Shouichi's bedroom.I repeat: there is a naked Italian in Shouichi'sbedroom.





	unravel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sizhu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sizhu/gifts).



> *laughs nervously* Happy belated birthday, Momo?

A dull sound of the drums from his laptop woke him up that afternoon to his aching bones and a stiffness in his ass that had manifested itself during his sleep after the previous night. The aches that ratted his bones and trailed his spine were the norm; the pain climbing up his ass wasn’t, but at the same time it was a completely expected one.

Shouichi, frankly speaking, did not want to be awake at three in the afternoon. To be even more frank, sometimes he’d rather not be awake ever, even though his habit of overworking himself into the small hours of the day would suggest the very opposite feeling.  As it was, today he would rather not be awake and face the conclusion of the previous night.

The said conclusion: a sleeping half-Italian man in his bedroom where Shouichi had left him after he had first woken up after a brief post-sex nap.

The small living room was where he had bitten at his thumbs in wordless, breathless anxiety that he tended to give in to on occasion. It was also where he fell asleep again after going through his files in his personal laptop and listening to the music he had, ears covered with headphones that he now had to take off from his ears to make way for the other noises in the apartment. The sound of the drums as well as the vocalist’s voice died out as he did, rendered into a much softer noise once the headphones were down and Shouichi was up.

He could hear soft snoring from the bedroom, even through the door, and it made him both smile and worry at the same time. How drunk had Dino really been? Apparently drunk enough to invite himself over to Shouichi’s and have an impromptu clothes-off session that laid the both of them on Shouichi’s bed.

If Shouichi thought too much about it, as he often did about many things, he could still feel his lips tingling and the ghosts of Dino Cavallone’s fingers on his back.

Shouichi glanced at his laptop. Three thirty now, and there was no pause in the gentle snoring that would not be so gentle up close. With a sigh, he closed the laptop, hand lingering on the top of it for a while as he nearly fell asleep again. His sleep deprivation worse than he had accounted for -- or his hangover, which hadn’t set up a raging headache but which he felt in the folds of his skin anyway.

Forcing himself up to his feet, hands on his knees, Shouichi gave a yawn that momentarily drowned out the snoring. Not that anything could make him forget that it was Dino Cavallone in his bed and Dino Cavallone he had slept with.

 

*

 

He first met Dino through Sawada Tsunayoshi. It was the same as with many of Shouichi’s friends and acquaintances and even employers – Sawada Tsunayoshi just had _that_ something that enabled people to gather around him and find something Shouichi would call peace of mind. He wouldn’t have known that in middle school, where he had been a year ahead of the meek, cripplingly awkward Tsuna.

In later years, though, something changed – much like the Western fairy tale of the ugly duckling, Tsuna grew and his awkwardness smoothed out and a strange charisma grew around him that enthralled and captured people. It was staggering to witness, although Shouichi only truly befriended Tsuna in high school despite their different choices in after-school activities and age.

High school had been terrible time for Shouichi, really. The pimples on his face and the thick-rimmed glasses on his nose made an easy target for looks-focused youth – and his social awkwardness hadn’t left, unlike Tsuna’s. Shouichi had never figured out what had changed in Tsuna’s third year of middle school, but it had done good things: perhaps puberty was just kinder to Tsuna when the rest of his life wasn’t. Tsuna still wasn’t a huge hit in the first years of high school, but Shouichi heard later that Tsuna’s last year had been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride, the highs and lows following each other in uneven pattern.

Shouichi had been 20 when Tsuna introduced him to Dino Cavallone, the 28-year-old kindergarten teacher that in all honesty just made Shouichi think of a well-behaved Italian gangster from one of the movies Shouichi had been into around that time. It was a silly connotation that the 25-year-old Shouichi indulged sometimes while shaking his head at his past self’s thoughts.

As a young engineering student, kindergarten teachers hadn’t seemed all that impressive – but, to be fair, same could be said about engineering students by literally everyone else. Shouichi had heard the jokes. ( _How many engineering students does it take to change a light bulb_ , etc.)

But, oh boy, Dino Cavallone was nothing like the kindergarten teachers Shouichi remembered. It was just a casual in-the-moment introduction, Tsuna being in a hurry to whatever he was doing at the time, but it became a memory Shouichi couldn’t forget and which he thought of quite often, even.

“Dino-san, this is Shouichi-kun,” Tsuna had said breathlessly as he fought with the buttons of his jacket. Shouichi had come at a bad time to visit as Tsuna was preparing to leave for work. The man beside him didn’t seem to be in any sort of hurry as he simply leaned against the closed door of Tsuna’s apartment while the hushed conversation went on in the building’s somewhat dirty hallway. “Shouichi-kun, this is Dino-san. He’s been… a great help to me over the years. He’s a kindergarten teacher and has been looking after my adopted siblings when Mom and I’ve been busy.”

“The pleasure’s been all mine, Tsuna,” Dino said, his warm eyes taking in Shouichi even as he spoke to Tsuna. Shouichi, in his loose band shirt and ragged jeans and even messier hair and dull eyes, had never felt so inadequate, save for every day in high school. “You know your family always made me feel welcome even when I was just a newcomer in this country and its ways.”

“Your Japanese is very good,” were the first words Shouichi offered when Dino shook his hand, still unaccustomed to bowing. Dino’s hand was warm against his, his fingers tight against the back of Shouichi’s hand.

Shouchi almost had a heart attack. Hardly an exaggeration – heart problems ran in his family like cheetahs across the savannah.  It wasn’t an everyday event that an attractive man should grip his hand and look at him with open interest. It made him rethink whether had had clothes on or not.

Dino’s smile reached his vivid brown eyes. “That’s always reassuring to hear. Thank you, Shouichi… san?”

Dino’s smile turned into a sheepish grin, his eyelids drooping as he released Shouichi’s hand to scratch at the back of his head in embarrassment. “I’m really not used to the honorifics yet. I keep going back to Italy to visit my family, and every time I get back from there, it’s like this…”

“That’s all right,” Shouichi’s mouth said as his brain simply fried itself at how strangely attractive the goofy look on Dino’s face was. “Just Shouichi is fine. I don’t, uh, really care about formalities myself.”

“Then just Dino is fine too,” Dino decided, and that was where the clearest memories end. Shouichi, for the life of him, couldn’t recall when Tsuna had left after having been so focused and nervous around Dino. He just remembered the dazzling smile, the brown eyes, and the words that had turned the 20-year-old’s stomach upside down.

He always did fall headfirst, Byakuran-san had later noted.

 

*

 

It wasn’t Tsuna that picked up the call when Shouichi tried to reach him. It was Tsuna’s year-long partner in life – and possibly in crime, since Tsuna wasn’t employed at any workplace he’d have mentioned to Shouichi at the moment but despite this had plenty of money to spare. As with many things in life, Shouichi kept his nose out of that. He had learned his lesson in college.

“Oh? What do I owe the honor to?” Mukuro’s voice wasn’t _as_ sugary as Shouichi’s unfortunate choice in best friend’s, but it was still enough to leave a bad taste linger on Shouichi’s tongue. “It’s been _forever_ since you’ve called, Irie Shouichi.”

Shouichi had regrets. Knowing Rokudo Mukuro was one of them. Byakuran had yet to make his way to Shouichi’s list of life regrets, but he was fast approaching what with his recent oddness.

“Tsuna-kun is away on his mystery business again, is he?” Shouichi mumbled as he glanced at the pot of water he was boiling for tea-related purposes. Mother had sent in chamomile for his nerves, recently. He couldn’t hear the water boil yet, so he turned away and proceeded to sweep the kitchen table clean from the forever-old stains of juice and soda.

Mukuro gave a sigh that did not betray his emotions on the matter. “Well, yes. Sawada Tsunayoshi continues being a workaholic. I assume he got that either from you or his father.”

Shouichi knew about Sawada Iemitsu, and resisted asking if Tsuna had been taken in by whatever league Iemitsu oversaw. Last he heard it was just a gang smuggling booze and other questionable substances. The thought made him pause his scrubbing and squint at the small window at the end of the small kitchen. Traffic was obnoxious as usual, although Namimori was hardly a city on Japan’s scale.

“What _is_ he doing, anyway?” Shouichi asked, his curiosity getting the better of him once again. He nearly hit his knee against the chair. _Fuck, why did you ask that._

“Nothing that would make you sleep any better at night,” Mukuro said smugly, obviously aware of Shouichi’s occasional nightmares.

Shouichi snorted as he straightened his back, leaving the washing cloth on the table so that he could roll his neck to remove the remaining stiffness. Dino had yet to emerge despite Shouichi’s less than quiet conversation. Shouichi’s mouth curved into a dry, ingenuine smile. “That’s very comforting, Rokudo Mukuro.”

Mukuro’s laugh was an ominous cackle, as usual. Shouichi really questioned Tsuna’s taste in people, but so far things seemed to be going well enough for them – no broken bones nor hearts so far.

“If you wish for comfort, perhaps you should turn to your _other_ friend.” Mukuro’s voice was heavy with suggestion that had Shouichi grit his teeth and dig nails into his palm. He had practiced talking before, but he was quick to fluster – and any practices at public speaking could hardly help against Mukuro.

“Byakuran-san is hardly any more comforting than you are.” Shouichi heard some rustling come from the direction of the bedroom, and turned around towards the closed door in high alert and with his hand clutching at the phone harder. Shit, he wasn’t prepared. _He wasn’t prepared_.

“I was referring to your other friends, actually. Spanner or—hm, yes, indeed—Dino Cavallone, perhaps?”

Mukuro’s mocking tone brought a flush over Shouichi’s face again, though some of it must have been anxiety about confronting Dino when he hadn’t reached Tsuna yet. Shouichi’s stomach churned, as if to confirm his stormy emotional state. He hadn’t taken his meds for the day yet. Shouichi cursed himself inwardly.

“Spanner is back in England,” he said flatly. He couldn’t bring himself to comment on Mukuro’s choice of including Dino in. They hadn’t spent time alone recently, if they had ever. They were on good terms, but nothing suggested mutual attraction to Shouichi.

“Well, that makes things more simple, then.” Mukuro paused to give another eerie laugh that was unsettling to the core of all things good. “He’s rather fond of being ridden, if I recall correctly. His nickname was something related to horses, anyway.”

Shouichi’s face, at this point, was burning, and he felt it might be even hotter than the fire that had recently claimed victim of the house he had once grown up in before moving away with his family to be closer to the train station. The Irie family still lived there: mother, father, and Shouichi’s elder sister who had been divorced from her husband and her will for anything, apparently.

“Has anyone ever told you you’re impossible?” Shouichi sighed into the phone, slowly enough to evade any stuttering spells.

“Yes. Tsunayoshi did, last night.” Shouichi rolled his eyes – if there were any gods, he would have been spared from this already, but _no_ , the misery of double meanings remained.

The door to Shouichi’s bedroom creaked open, and Shouichi nearly jumped. Nearly. But his stomach, heavy with worry, kept him grounded.

“I—I’m going to go now,” Shouichi stammered this time, much to his own displeasure. He had tried too hard to not show weakness, and yet all the effort had gone to waste because of the unholy combination of nerves and stomach. “Send Tsuna my regards, okay?”

The door had opened fully, and one sleepy-looking Dino Cavallone had stepped out. Very naked. The afternoon sun that slipped in through the kitchen window did great in highlighting the curves and dips of Dino’s abs.

Shouichi kind of wished he didn’t have his glasses on. Flawed sight would have prevented him from witnessing the glory of Dino’s abs. Not even mathematic formulas could distract him. Dino’s abs _were_ a mathematic formula.

Noooo, Shouichi, don’t do this to yourself.

It was too late to stop the ogling now as he had already hung up on Mukuro and Dino had already exposed himself to Shouichi’s wide, red-rimmed eyes. At least the glassed hid some of that. “I, um, uh, good morning, Dino. San. Good morning, Dino-san.”

Dino’s smiled was a lopsided one. “It’s four in the afternoon, Shou.”

The nickname had been born out of laziness, Shouichi figured, but it still made his skin tingle, especially when he remembered the way it had been whispered across his skin last night. A wholly unnecessary memory, but one that persisted in the back of Shouichi’s head.

“And you’re the one that just woke up,” Shouichi said, finding his voice as he relented his hold on the phone and put it down on the nearest surface, which happened to be the recently wiped table. Shouichi tried his best to not fidget. It was hard without his headphones at hand. “I’m making some tea, so if you want some…”

Dino’s hair was less curled than usually, ruffled from sleep, but his bangs still fell more on the right side of his face, just above his eyes that were just as red-rimmed as Shouichi’s but much more brilliant in every way otherwise.

The tea pot whistled, interrupting Shouichi’s thoughts just in time. Over the whistling, behind his suddenly turned back, Shouichi heard, “I’d love to.”

 

*

 

It was a lot like one of those American comedies Shouichi had watched during his exchange year in the States: a kitchen, a tea pot, two men out of whom one was naked. It was just the perfect set-up, wasn’t it? Or maybe it was for a British comedy instead. Shouichi forgot.

For a man that had slept well into the afternoon, Dino looked remarkably exhausted. Maybe that was to be expected. Shouichi poured Dino some tea first. The tea leaves were a gift from his mom, who cared for him in her eccentrically carefree manner. _“Tea will help with your stomachaches, Shouichi darling,”_ she had always said, and she had not given up on her belief.

The scent was comforting, if nothing else. Shouichi could breathe again until he accidentally looked up to Dino who was watching him with a silent but appreciative look. Shouichi only now noticed the tattoo that went up his left arm. That hadn’t been there before, had it? Shouichi couldn’t remember, not under the pull Dino’s eyes had on him.

Sometimes, he just wanted to let himself go and be loved.

But then Shouichi would think of Byakuran-san and his messes and refuse himself, because there was no such thing as a relationship without issues and he had his hands full with just his friendships.  Shouichi had bad days frequently. He didn’t want to bring anyone down with him.

Which made the situation all the worse, even though he remembered Dino’s touches with fondness that didn’t come easily for a hungover man.

“Thank you,” Dino says, and his genuine tone made Shouichi smile in spite of the awkwardness.

He moved on to pour himself a cup, the liquid coming down like the Niagara Falls he had once seen.

 

*

 

Dino lingered. There was nothing to talk about, save for the obvious, and he looked ill at ease with the silence that Shouichi had allowed to go on. He also looked tired, bathed in the afternoon sun. Shouichi saw his chest hair, as well as nipples.

It was very much like one of the most bizarre episodes of Friends.

“You look exhausted,” Dino eventually settled for. Sympathy laced his voice, and it was pleasant to listen to.

Shouichi played with the ear of his cup, a half-hearted smile on his face as he said, perhaps curtly, “It was a long night.”

The smile that pulled at Dino’s mouth was as suggestive as a smile could be, and Shouichi rolled his eyes, even though the wings of flustered nerves fluttered about in his stomach. In his everywhere, actually. “Yeah, because of that too.”

“Sorry I kept you up so long,” Dino said, smiling until his face looked like it might be breaking from the tension the smile forced on his muscles. It was a happy thing, though, and Dino’s eyes squinted just like they did when Tsuna had done something particularly kind for him. Shouichi had never seen him with kids, but just that expression alone made him sure the kids he looked after adored him.

Shouichi was in too damn deep. The fact he found this bearable despite the situation said as much.

“I stay up late, in any case,” Shouichi said, evasively. His eyes landed on Dino’s fingers gently curled around the hot cup of tea. Under the table, Dino’s legs were close enough to touch without too much effort. Shouichi’s stomach turned despite the calming tea he sipped at. Why was he like this every time he had affections for someone? Why was he like this regardless?

Shouichi’s eyes darted up to see Dino’s eyes crinkling into his smile, but a flash of concern flitted over the brown irises. He leaned closer over the small table, towards Shouichi.

“You’re thinking too much, aren’t you?” From anyone else’s mouth, save for Tsuna’s, it would have sounded condescending, perhaps arrogant, and definitely belittling, but Dino was nothing but gentle in his words. As easygoing as he was, as _clumsy_ as he was, he was—he had tact that most people in Shouichi’s life didn’t.

Shouichi’s heart leaped, this time, and Shouichi quickly brought the porcelain cup to his lips. The chamomile tea did nothing this time.

The heat on his face was hardly from the tea.

“Don’t I always?” he said, opting to take the self-depreciative route. Then, he huffed, stirring more honey into his tea, “I guess I shouldn’t. Drunks do as drunks do.”

“Usually not without reason,” Dino said, reaching his hand out to brush some of Shouichi’s fiery red bangs away from his eyes, which only made Shouichi painfully aware of needing a haircut. Dino’s fingers tumbled against the frames of Shouichi’s glasses, setting them askew on his nose.

Dino laughed sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Shouichi couldn’t help but laugh a little despite himself, the knots of anxiety switched to waves of intimate pleasure only ever so few people could elicit in him.

“They fall down often as it is,” he explained, perhaps rambling as Dino played with the frames, his fingers occasionally slipping down to Shouichi’s warm cheeks. Shouichi tried his best not to fidget, his best to _breathe_.  “I think I need new ones.”

“You’re handsome when you squint anyway,” Dino said casually as he pulled the glasses off completely. Shouichi’s vision immediately blurred, but he could still see Dino’s mouth moving to the words he spoke. “Ever tried contact lenses?”

“I haven’t,” Shouichi said before his mind took a quick rewind to what Dino said just previously. “Wait, what?”

Dino stood up to lean over the table to press a kiss on his cheek, his lips warm and wet from the tea. But not warmer than Shouichi’s face in that moment. “You heard me well enough, Shou.”

And the fluttering feeling in his chest got magnificently worse at that.

 

*

 

Neither of them had had anything planned for the Sunday day, even though Shouichi usually spent them working and Dino in a Catholic church out of habit and, perhaps, regret. Shouichi didn’t know why regret in particular, but it wasn’t his secret to know.

Shouichi had the urge to usher Dino into proper clothes, but even while naked the man seemed to be completely at ease and so Shouichi decided to not say anything.

He had been conditioned to ignore many things during his years of friendship with Byakuran-san, after all.

And, well, Shouichi liked the sight. He wasn’t the most appreciative of art, but if all art could be like Dino— Shouichi cut off that thought, deeming it as one of the over-the-top gay thoughts he sometimes had.

After the tea, they had moved back to Shouichi’s bedroom, which was bathed in light but not direct sunlight like the kitchen. The bed was a mess as usual, a little worse this time.

Dino pulled him into the bed with him, not really caring Shouichi was fully-clothed whereas he was not, tugging Shouichi on top of him.

Shouichi sputtered before finding his voice. “Denim doesn’t feel good against your dick, I think.”

“It really doesn’t,” Dino agreed, voice heartwarmingly tender. His hands rubbed at Shouichi’s hips and back slowly, like there was no place they’d rather be in. “It’s all right, though. It felt good last night, which is more than I can say about the recent years.”

“Well, that’s—that’s good.” Shouichi looked away at his nightstand where an open package of condoms still lay innocently. It had been torn open messily, leaving jagged plastic behind and more condoms on the verge of slipping out.

More than his physical appendages, though… Shouichi’s heart hadn’t felt better in a while once it had calmed down from the clutches of anxiety.

He had always figured he was the person that needed constant reassurances that he was needed, _loved_ , in this world – verbal reassurances, even, perhaps even those glibly spoken declarations of love that sounded terrible in dramas but seemed to suit certain moments.

Shouichi wasn’t as impulsive of a person as he had been in his teen years, or even in his college years. Something had died inside him then, but looking at Dino now… at the inviting brown of his eyes, of the coaxing and patient smile that was on full display on Dino’s mouth…

He had been waiting for a moment like this forever.

Maybe that was why he had been more than happy to join Dino when they had both been drunk and stripped of all their daily inhibitions.

Shouichi laid his sweaty hands on Dino’s face and kissed him.

The trick was to find his way through the web of his anxiety, and keep on going. It couldn’t hold him back forever.

Dino smiled against his lips, as happy as Shouichi had ever seen him.

 

*

 

The small feet of children made a ruckus at the parking lot Shouichi had just pulled to, at the end of which Shouichi could see Dino ruffling one of his charges’ head before gently guiding her to her mother. Her heir was bright red – a rare occurrence in Japan. Shouichi glanced at his rearview mirror, in which the ends of his vermillion bangs showed.

Done with parking, Shouichi got out of the car and into the ruckus of noise as the kids hollered their goodbyes at Dino, the cheerful man with the “funny waves in hair”, as Shouichi heard one kid proclaim.

He wasn’t fond of children, and yet he found that precious.

Maybe it was his fondness for Dino speaking.

Dino still wore the apron-like uniform he used to work around kids, and it was ridiculous how not-ridiculous the get-up looked on someone like Dino. Shouichi looked ridiculous in most clothes – then again, he didn’t try hard in the first place. Dino did.

“Hey there,” Dino said, visibly struggling to not pull Shouichi close. Shouichi smiled cautiously, brushing his fingers against Dino’s when the kids and their parents couldn’t see.

“How was it today?” Shouichi asked, even though Dino’s face revealed everything.

“The same as usual.” Dino waved to another group of kids and their parents before continuing with slightly wrinkled brows. “I think they had a good time. Though there’s that one kid that worries me still…”

“You’ll figure it out,” Shouichi said with calm confidence, slipping a warm bag of freshly baked goods into Dino’s hands. “From my mother. Told me to bring you home soon, though I don’t know how she figured out I was seeing anyone.”

Dino’s voice went terribly soft as he said, “That’s what mothers do, Shou.”

In the foreground of their vision, a mother picked a child into her arms while another scolded hers for one reason or another. Both of them looked like they couldn’t imagine a world without their child.

Shouichi’s stomach tightened, and he took Dino’s free hand in his despite the publicity. Dino squeezed the hand that he hadn’t held since that morning. It felt like an eternity.

“I’m free next weekend,” Dino suddenly said. “If that’s fine with your mother.”

Shouichi bit back a sound of vague distress. His mother was a difficult one, although eccentrically enough showed more care now that he was an adult. “I’m sure something can be arranged.”

Well, either way, he’d pull through the embarrassment.

Dino was easy to love, even through the layers of anxiety and over-thinking.


End file.
